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Onboard an Azure VM with Windows Server & Microsoft SQL Server to Azure Arc

The following README will guide you on how to use the provided Azure ARM Template to deploy an Azure VM installed with Windows Server and Microsoft SQL Server 2019 (Developer edition) and connect it as an Azure Arc enabled SQL server resource.

Azure VMs are leveraging the Azure Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) by default. By projecting an Azure VM as an Azure Arc enabled server, a "conflict" is created which will not allow for the Azure Arc server resources to be represented as one when the IMDS is being used and instead, the Azure Arc server will still "act" as a native Azure VM.

However, for demo purposes only, the below guide will allow you to use and onboard Azure VMs to Azure Arc and by doing so, you will be able to simulate a server which is deployed outside of Azure (i.e "on-premises" or in other cloud platforms)

Note: It is not expected for an Azure VM to be projected as an Azure Arc enabled server. The below scenario is unsupported and should ONLY be used for demo and testing purposes.

By the end of the guide, you will have an Azure VM installed with Windows Server 2019 with SQL Server 2019, projected as an Azure Arc enabled SQL Server and a running SQL assessment with data injected to Azure Log Analytics workspace.

Prerequisites

  • Clone this repo

    git clone https://github.com/microsoft/azure_arc.git

  • Install or update Azure CLI. Azure CLI should be running version 2.7 or later. Use az --version to check your current installed version.

  • In case you don't already have one, you can Create a free Azure account.

  • Create Azure Service Principal (SP)

    In order for you to deploy the Azure resources using the ARM template, Azure Service Principal assigned with the "Contributor" role is required. To create it, login to your Azure account run the below command (this can also be done in Azure Cloud Shell).

    az login
az ad sp create-for-rbac -n "<Unique SP Name>" --role contributor

    For example:

    az ad sp create-for-rbac -n "http://AzureArcServers" --role contributor

    Output should look like this:

    {
"appId": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
"displayName": "AzureArcServers",
"name": "http://AzureArcServers",
"password": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
"tenant": "XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
}

Note: It is optional, but highly recommended, to scope the SP to a specific Azure subscription and resource group.

NOTE: The note content.

Automation Flow

The automation for this scenario include 3 PowerShell scripts executed in the following order:

  1. ClientTools.ps1 - Executed at ARM Template deployment time as a CustomScriptExtension. This script has two main functionalities:

    1. Generate the LogonScript.ps1 script and will configure a Windows scheduled task to LogonScript when user log in the VM for the first time.

    2. Download the ArcOnboarding.ps1 script.

  2. LogonScript.ps1 - Auto generated by the ClientTools script. This script has two main functionalities:

    1. Install and configure SQL Server on the VM
    2. Execute the ArcOnboarding script

  3. ArcOnboarding.ps1 - This is the main script and will be executed by the LogonScript script at VM runtime. This script has multiple functionalities:

    1. Restore AdventureWorksLT2019 Database
    2. Allow Azure VM to be onboard to Azure Arc
    3. Project VM as an Azure Arc enabled server resource
    4. Project SQL Server as an Azure Arc enabled SQL server resource
    5. Deploy Log Analytics workspace and Solutions
    6. Install Log Analytics agent using extension on Azure Arc server
    7. Create SQL Assessment and inject data to Azure Log Analytics workspace

For you to get familiar with the automation and deployment flow, below is an explanation.

  1. User is editing the ARM template parameters file (1-time edit). These params values are being used throughout the deployment.

  2. The ARM template incl. an Azure VM Custom Script Extension which will deploy the the ClientTools.ps1 PowerShell Script. The script will:

    1. Download the [ArcOnboarding.ps1] PowerShell script

    2. Set local OS environment variables

    3. Generate a local OS logon script named LogonScript.ps1. This script will:

Deployment

As mentioned, this deployment will use an ARM Template. You will deploy a single template, responsible for creating all the Azure resources in a single resource group as well onboarding the created VM to Azure Arc.

  • Before deploying the ARM template, login to Azure using AZ CLI with the az login command.

  • The deployment is using the ARM template parameters file. Before initiating the deployment, edit the azuredeploy.parameters.json file located in your local cloned repository folder. An example parameters file is located here.

  • To deploy the ARM template, navigate to the local cloned deployment folder and run the below command:

    az group create --name <Name of the Azure resource group> --location <Azure Region> --tags "Project=jumpstart_azure_arc_sql"
az deployment group create \
--resource-group <Name of the Azure resource group> \
--name <The name of this deployment> \
--template-uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/azure_arc/master/azure_arc_sqlsrv_jumpstart/azure/arm_template/azuredeploy.json \
--parameters <The *azuredeploy.parameters.json* parameters file location>

    [!NOTE] Make sure that you are using the same Azure resource group name as the one you've just used in the azuredeploy.parameters.json file

    For example:

    az group create --name Arc-SQL-Demo --location "East US" --tags "Project=jumpstart_azure_arc_sql"
az deployment group create \
--resource-group Arc-Servers-Win-Demo \
--name arcsqlsrvdemo \
--template-uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/azure_arc/master/azure_arc_sqlsrv_jumpstart/azure/arm_template/azuredeploy.json \
--parameters azuredeploy.parameters.json

  • Once Azure resources has been provisioned, you will be able to see it in Azure portal.

Windows Login & Post Deployment

  • Now that the Windows Server VM has been deployed, it is time to login to it. Using it's public IP, RDP to the VM.

  • At first login, as mentioned in the "Automation Flow" section, a logon script will get executed. This script was created as part of the automated deployment process.

Let the script to run its course and do not close the PowerShell session, this will be done for you once completed.

[!NOTE] The script run time is ~10-15min long

  • Upon successful run, in the Azure portal, notice you now have a new Azure Arc enabled server (with the Microsoft Monitoring agent installed via an extension) and Azure Arc enabled SQL resources as well as Azure Log Analytics added to the resource group.

  • Open Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (a Windows shortcut will be created for you) and validate the AdventureWorksLT2019 sample database is deployed as well.

Azure SQL Assessment

Now that you have both the server and SQL projected as Azure Arc resources, the last step is complete the initiation of the SQL Assessment run.

  • On the SQL Azure Arc resource, click on "Environment Health" followed by clicking the "Download configuration script".

Since the LogonScript run in the deployment step took care of deploying and installing the required binaries, you can safely ignore and delete the downloaded AddSqlAssessment.ps1 file.

Clicking the "Download configuration script" will simply send a REST API call to the Azure portal which will make "Step3" available and will result with a grayed-out "View SQL Assessment Results" button.

It might take a bit of time, but after ~45-60min you will notice how the "View SQL Assessment Results" button is available for you to click on. At this point, the SQL assessment data and logs are getting injected to Azure Log Analytics.

Initially, the amount of data will be limited as it take a while for the assessment to complete a full cycle but after few hours you should be able to see much more data coming in.

Cleanup

To delete the entire deployment, simply delete the Resource Group from the Azure portal.